1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and more particularly to an information processing apparatus such as a computer, an electronic typewriter a word processor, a facsimile equipment, a copying machine or the like which empoys said ink jet recording apparatus as an output terminal for, for example, images, characters.
2. Related Background Art
Various types of recording systems for recording on a recording medium (referred to xe2x80x9crecording paperxe2x80x9d or simply to xe2x80x9cpaperxe2x80x9d, hereinafter) such as paper, sheets for OHP, etc. have been conventionally proposed on which recording heads operated by varied kinds of recording systems are mounted. The recording heads may be types of wire dot system, system, thermal transfer system, ink jet system, etc,.
Particular attention has been paid to recording heads used in ink jet systems, since this recording system has such advantages that ink is ejected directly to the recording paper, running cost thereof is low and a recording action is quiet.
In recent years, the ink jet recording apparatus, more specifically, the recording head, has been manufactured according to film formation technique or micronization technique in a semiconductor device, and therefore, the production of a more compact and more inexpensive recording head has been realized. Thus, for example, a replaceable recording head integrated with an ink tank has been proposed and the miniaturized and simple structure of an apparatus itself has been enabled, under the circumstances.
The ink jet recording apparatus having the various advantages as mentioned above has been widely utilized as a recording apparatus for varied devices including an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a facsimile equipment, a copying machine, etc,. In this case, the ink jet recording apparatus must have a structure which meets functions and conditions for employment inherent to these devices.
As for the electronic typewriter, the word processor or the like, a compact, light and portable type is liable to be liked, and therefore, the ink jet recording apparatus used for these devices must have been compact and simple in this point.
In the ink jet recording apparatus of such type, a recording operation is performed in such a way that ink is supplied to a recording head, the ink is ejected from an ejection outlet provided on the face of the recording head opposed to a recording medium to form flying ink droplets and the ink droplet is applied to the recording medium. In the ink recording apparatus, generally, during the recording operation or when the recording head is not used but is kept standing or the like, ink scum, paper powder or dust may possibly adhere to an ink ejection outlet or air bubbles may enter the interior of the ink ejection outlet, which causes an ink discharge failure. The causes of the ink discharge failure have been removed by using recovery methods such as the ink being sucked out of the ink ejection outlet, the ink being discharged from the ejection outlet by pressing an ink supply system, or the ink being removed by performing a prescribed ink discharging operation (called xe2x80x9cpreliminary dischargexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cidle dischargexe2x80x9d), in place of these forced discharging operations, or along with them.
The above described ink jet recording apparatus has operated in response to the automatic operation of the above recover device or a manual operation thereof by an operator when the power of the recording apparatus is turned on, when recording failure is generated during the recording, after a long recording interruption or after a prescribed amount of recording operation.
However, in such an ink jet recording apparatus that the recover device is designed to operate when the power is turned on or during the Interruption of the recording operation, irrespective of whether the recording is performed thereafter or not, and therefore, the ink is unavoidably wastefully thrown away according to a discharge stabilizing process (recover process). Especially, in recent years, the use of recording heads of a type that the ink is discharged by making use of thermal energy enables the miniaturization of the ink jet recording apparatus to be promoted. Some ink jet recording apparatuses, as one example of use, may be integrally built in a word processor, an electronic typewriter and other information processing apparatus. In such a recording apparatus, since the power is often turned on for example, only for editing sentences without performing the recording, increase in the amount of ink consumed in the ink jet recording apparatus causes a great problem.
In case where the recover process is performed in response to a manual operation according to the decision of the operator, the recording medium on which the recording failure arises is inevitably wasteful because the recover device operates after the failure in recording is detected.
Further, even if the prescribed number of similar recover operations are automatically carried out when a predetermined stand-by period elapses, the discharge failure including non-discharge may not be completely recovered only depending on the prescribed number of recover operations, in case where, for example, the recording head is left as long as more than one month, because prescribed time and the number of recover operations are constant. For instance, in case the recording head has been left as long as 26 hours, the prescribed number of recover operations are conducted, which may, on the contrary, lead to the excessive increase of the recover operations and to the wasteful consumption of the ink due to the suction of ink or the like.
In case the recover operation is conducted when the power is turned on and then, the recording head is left with the power kept turned on without performing the recording operation, there is a possibility that the recover operation is not carried out during an ordinary recording, resulting in the discharge failure including non-discharge. In the control for performing the recover operation every time the power is turned on without taking time from the recover process of the preceding time into consideration, the recover operation is performed every power on, in case the power is repeatedly turned on and off at intervals of short time, which inconveniently results in an unnecessary recovery operation.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus in which a recording failure can be prevented without consuming ink wastefully.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus in which a constantly excellent recording is enabled by making a recovery operation for discharge failure in an adequate manner and at a proper timing.
A still another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus in which a recovery operation is started for recovering and preventing the generation of a discharge failure in an ink discharge outlet for discharging ink based on recording data supplied from a main body of an information processing apparatus which is the supply source of the recording data, in response to a command from the main body of the information processing apparatus.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus in which recording data and a command starting a recovery operation for recovering a discharge failure in an ink discharge outlet and preventing the generation of the discharge failure are supplied to an ink jet recording apparatus having the ink discharge outlet for discharging ink based on the recording data.
According to the present invention, the recover process of the ink jet recording apparatus is controlled by the main body side of an information processing apparatus and during the recording operation by using the ink jet recording apparatus, the recover operation is performed only when it is required, and therefore, the useless consumption of ink can be avoided. The employment of a timer function which is usually provided in the information processing apparatus in order to control the start timing of the recover process makes it unnecessary to provide a timer or a buck-up power source in the ink jet recording apparatus side, so that the increase of cost for constructing or maintaining the ink jet apparatus can be suppressed.
Since the form or the number of a series of recover operations such as the suction or ink, preliminary discharge which are carried out upon turning a power on or starting recording is variable in accordance with, for example, time elapsing from the recover operation of the last time, an essential recover operation can be performed more accurately and adequately,